Electromyogram of the Cibarial Pump and the Feeding Process in Hematophagous Hemiptera

The feeding process of hematophagous insects constitutes an important period in their life cycle. During this process, the insect is in close contact with its host, the blood required for reproduction and completion of insect development is obtained and pathogens can be transmitted. Several studies have focused on this period using different tools to monitor the details of feeding, with particular attention given to electromyograms of the cibarial pump. The cibarial pump is a structure associated with a complex of muscles located in the head of the insect. It controls the ingestion of blood from the host and transfers it to the gut. Monitoring of the frequency and shape of the electrical signals produced by this muscle complex enables the phases and parameters of the feeding process to be precisely determined and allows any disturbance or feature that may affect hematophagy to be evaluated. In this chapter we review technical and methodological issues that allow cibarial pump electromyograms to be used in studying the insect blood-feeding process and describe the results that may be obtained from such a system.